@monica19815 Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect! You've picked a great topic for your first post here on this forum!

I am an active blood cancer patient, undergoing chemotherapy, and a dialysis patient. As you stated, I have been wearing a mask since before COVID, and consider my immune system to be severely compromised. I try to educate people when possible, about the why of wearing a mask. So many times they don't really hear the message, instead saying, "oh, I'm so sorry you have that". But at least I hopefully passed on the education, at some level.

Yesterday I was at a small meeting, in a small room. There were 7 of us. I was the only one masked, and everyone there knew my health situation. Imagine my frustration and sense of "really??? what were you thinking???" when I found out later that the one person who gave me a big long hug after the meeting, has been dealing with a two week case of the flu [who knows what it really might be!?]. If I had known that I certainly wouldn't have let her hug me!
Ginger

Hi @monica19815 I’m right with you on the mask situation! Covid really did help to normalize mask wearing for some of us. But there is still a faction out there who have this deep seated anti-mask resistance for whatever reason. The newer N-95 masks are backed by research, statistics and data that support their efficacy and I trust the doctors at Mayo who promote my continued mask wearing. The N-95 masks that I wear when out in a store, elevators, home if visitors are with me, etc., have worked the past 5 years to keep me safe and healthy.

I don’t wear this particular type of mask now, but I began wearing the recommended VOG mask, day one, since my bone marrow transplant. This was a couple years before Covid. During that time the only place I saw others wearing a mask were in Rochester where I stayed for 4 months. It was so commonplace to see mask wearers that no one gave us a second glance. Big shock wave when I finally went back home after being so comfy in Rochester those many months. My first venture into the grocery store with my husband, I had been feeling so liberated! I’m finally home and out doing normal things!! Yay!! But that confidence was briefly shattered by an encounter with a little girl and her mom in one of the aisles. I was reaching for an item when the little girl blurted out, “Mommy, what’s wrong with that lady? Why does she have that mask on?” I was thinking this was a great teaching opportunity so I turned to say hi. But instead, the mom hurriedly grabbed the little girl and walked away, saying “I don’t know but we’re going to get as far away from her as we can so you don’t get sick!” What?? Lady, your kid posed more of a threat to me! What lesson did that teach her child? I can only imagine when Covid hit what their response was.
But on the plus side that day, there was a gentleman riding in an assisted cart who saw me and said, “Oh look at you, rockin’ that mask! You look gooood!” That made my day!! 🤣

Funny, it seems most of my encounters with naysayers are in grocery stores. The older woman I was talking about in my previous comment caught me so off guard, I could only laugh! What she said and the way she said it was just so absurd! She wasn’t worth my time but there are occasions when someone will ask about why I’m wearing a mask. Sometimes I’ll explain about the transplant but most of the time I just say I have a compromised immune system and leave it at that. My biggest problem is that I tend to be snarky and most people who are already upset with my mask wearing don’t take kindly top be being flippant. LOL.

I love that you wear a mask when you’re feeling ill so as not to share with everyone else. It just makes sense and I wish everyone was as thoughtful. ☺️